Groundhog Night (Groundhogs Live)

Anyone who feels a big gap in their life not having Cream around to perform and record will love Groundhog Night. But for anyone else, this double CD is problematic, capturing as it does McPhee's latter-day, re-formed Groundhogs live in concert in the 1990s. The sound is very heavy, and heavily electric, with amplification more suited to late 1960s/early 1970s arena rock than mid-1960s blues-rock. Thus, the covers of standards like Muddy Waters' "Still a Fool," "No More Doggin'," and "I Want You to Love Me," and Willie Dixon's "Shake For Me" won't be to every taste, although McPhee's own established showcases, such as "Split Pts. 1 and 2" and "Thank Christ for the Bomb," fare reasonably well, and we even get a pleasing, restrained run through of "Groundhog Blues." There's lots of feedback and sustain, and it seems like McPhee and company try to turn "Still a Fool" into something akin to Cream's version of "Spoonful" -- this isn't entirely successful, unless one is very much a fan of that brand of psychedelic or white electric blues. ~ Bruce Eder|